Crisis in Nation Building

Crisis in Nation Building

Nation-building is a vague concept that means different things to different people in different situations
and conditions. The latest general rule is the definition that essentially one nation are those in which
dysfunctional or unstable or "failed states" or economies are given assistance in the development of
governmental infrastructure, dispute resolution mechanisms and civil society as well as economic
assistance, in order to increase stability. Nation-building generally assumes that someone or something is
doing the building intentionally with the intent of bettering a nation or territory.
Unfortunately, nation construction in one general area can completely destroy or supplant others in the
same area. A prime example of this is when America was being shaped and molded by the English. The
Six-Nations Confederacy of the Iroquois had existed before the US nation (and was thought by some to
be a model for it). Yet, this Six-nations Confederacy is all but destroyed in modern society. Today many
"First Nations" are in the process of nation re-building, re-building the social, cultural, economic and
political foundations for what is left of self-governance. First nations seek to re-build cultural identities as
nations in order to challenge their disintegration by others in the creation of their own states.
Major input functions are as follows: 1) political socialization and recruitment, 2) interest articulation,
3) interest aggregation, and 4) political communication. Output functions were: 1) rule-making, 2) rule
application, and 3) rule adjudication. Most nation-building after the end of the Cold War seems to focus
more on the output functions. Yet, all of these ‘rules’ should be applied when thinking of rebuilding a
nation (or changing it for that matter).
The first major question that needs to be asked is, whether nation-building should be done at all? In
retrospect, the nation has failed and is probably...